From Crisis and Disintegration to Recovery and Rebirth

AP EUROPEAN HISTORY/SPENCER ASSIGNMENT SHEET – UNIT 1

From Crisis and Disintegration to Recovery and Rebirth:

High Middle Ages, Renaissance and Exploration

Unit Objectives

·  Provide historical evidence that the Renaissance WAS and WAS NOT a “rebirth.”

·  Describe humanism as it was understood during the Renaissance.

·  Describe the curriculum of classical education advocated by the Renaissance humanists and identify its key features.

·  Identify characteristics of classical art and architecture and explain how Renaissance humanism influenced classical art and architecture.

·  Explain how patrons of the arts, such as the Church and the Medici family, were vital to the development of the artistic culture of the Renaissance.

·  Demonstrate familiarity with Renaissance authors, their works, and their content.

·  Describe the concept of civic humanism and the role of classical education in creating the “Renaissance Man.”

·  Describe the role of women in the Renaissance, as well as attitudes toward women that prevailed in Europe at the time.

·  Compare and contrast the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance.

·  Explain the rise of the “New Monarchs” in England and Spain in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and identify their key achievements.

·  Identify key explorers in the Age of Exploration, explain how they were aided by the development of new technologies, and explain the impact of their discoveries on the global economy.

Important People
Jacob Burckhardt
Peter Burke
Petrarch
Castiglione
Machiavelli
Pico della Mirandola
Marsilio Ficino
Pietro Paolo Vergerio
Vittorino da Feltre
Medici Family
Isabella D’Este
Leonardo Bruni
Johannes Gutenberg
Thomas More / Erasmus
Giotto
Brunelleschi
Raphael
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Sandro Botticelli
Van Eyck
Albrecht Durer
Louis XI
Henry VII
Ferdinand and Isabella
John Wyclif
Jan Hus / Pope Pius II
Pope Julius II
Pope Leo X
Prince Henry the Navigator
Vasco da Gama
Christopher Columbus
Ferdinand Magellan
Hernan Cortes
Francisco Pizarro
Bartolome de Las Casas
Lord Macartney
Gerardus Mercator
Fugger Family

Key Images (below)

Duccio’s and Lippi’s Madonna and Child (comparison of Byzantine and Renaissance style)

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus

Raphael’s School of Athens

Leonardo’s Last Supper

Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam

Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait

Michelangelo’s David

**YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DISCUSS HOW THESE IMAGES REFLECT THE VALUES AND TRENDS OF THE RENAISSANCE**

Date / Class Topics / Assignments Due
9/6
Tuesday
S / ·  Start of Course Details
·  The Crisis of the 14th Century: Plague, Famine, War, Civil Discontent, Political Instability, Church Decline, OH MY!
·  Starting at the Renaissance and the significance of periodization in history: Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance / ·  Text pp. 303-334 (summer)
·  Boccaccio Decameron (summer)
·  Jean de Venette (summer)
·  Antisemitism and the Plague (summer)
·  Black Death YouTube Video (summer)
·  John of Paris (summer)
·  Boniface VIII (summer)
·  Froissart Rebellions of 1381
·  King Edward III Statute of Laborers
9/7
Wednesday
A / ·  Why begin at the Renaissance?
·  Meaning and Characteristics of the Italian Renaissance
·  Was the Renaissance really a “rebirth”? Two Perspectives on the Renaissance: Burke and Burckhardt (OPVL WS)
·  Changes and Continuities with MA
·  Renaissance Society / ·  Text pp. 337-344 (summer)
·  Go over syllabus, class policies, and school wires class site
·  Watch The Dark Ages (1.5 hours)
9/8
Thursday
B / ·  Italian States in the Renaissance
·  Intellectual Renaissance in Italy, pt. 1 / ·  Text pp. 344-355 (summer)
·  Machiavelli The Prince (summer)
·  PBS Medici Documentary (summer)
·  Castiglione Book of the Courtier
·  Continuity and Change Chart
9/12
Monday
D / ·  Intellectual Renaissance in Italy, pt. 2
·  The Artistic Renaissance
o  Transition from the Medieval Period (on Medieval babies)
o  Italian Renaissance
o  Northern Renaissance / ·  Text pp. 349-362 (summer)
·  Christine de Pisan City of Ladies (summer)
·  Pico della Mirandola Dignity of Man
·  Vergerio On the Liberal Arts
·  Petrarch Letter to Boccaccio
·  Vasari Lives of the Artists (summer)
9/13
Tuesday
A / ·  European States in the Renaissance/New Monarchs
·  The Renaissance Church / ·  Text pp. 362-370 (summer)
·  Attack on the Papacy: The Concilicar Movement (Sacrosancta, Frequens) (summer)
·  Pope Pius II Excecrabilis (summer)
9/14
Wednesday
B / ·  Student Art Presentations / ·  Group Presentations – Renaissance Art Project
·  History of the Renaissance for review (summer)
9/16
Friday
D / ·  Exploration - Motives
·  Spanish and Portuguese Expeditions / ·  Read textbook pp. 410-421 (Means and Motives for Exploration; Spain and Portugal )
·  PRINT SLIDES FOR AGE OF EXPLORATIONand bring to class
9/19
Monday
A / ·  Exploration: New Rivals on the World Stage / ·  Read pp.421-433 (Rivals on the World Stage)
·  Perry Primary Source packetpp.348-353 (Intro; Discovery and Conquest of Mexico)
·  Primary Source Reading – Exploration section: Mendez Pinto Diary (below)
9/20
Tuesday
B / ·  Impact of European Expansion
·  Economic ideologies of mercantilism and capitalism / ·  Read Perry Primary Source packet pp. 363-366 (Slave Trade and Economic Systems)
·  Read pp. 433-441 (Impact of European Expansion and the World Economy)
9/22
Thursday
D / ·  Finish all remaining notes
·  Review free response writing skills / ·  Be sure you have completed all reading for unit.
·  Begin studying for test
9/23
Friday
A / Unit Test / MC, Short Answer, Essay

Primary Sources:

BALDESAR CASTIGLIONE, THE BOOK OF THE COURTIER

In the Italian states, the most prestigious life took place in the courts of rulers. While Machiavelli wrote about methods and rules for the successful prince, others described the qualities necessary for men or women hoping to rise or maintain their position in court life. The most famous of these writers was the Italian diplomat Baldesar Castiglione (1478-1529), who wrote The Book of the Courtier while a member of the Duke of Urbino's court. In the following excerpt, Castiglione describes first, the best qualities of the courtier—the ideal "Renaissance man"—and second, the virtues and actions best suited to women of the court.

Consider why Castiglione considers noble birth important; what talents Castiglione thinks are most important for the courtier's success; how a woman's path to success at court differs from a man's.

"Thus, I would have our Courtier born of a noble and genteel family; because it is far less becoming for one of low birth to fail to do virtuous things than for one of noble birth, who, should he stray from the path of. his forebears, stains the family name, and not only fails to achieve anything but loses what has been achieved already. For noble birth is like a bright lamp that makes manifest and visible deeds both good and bad, kindling and spurring on to virtue as much for fear of dishonor as for hope of praise...

Besides his noble birth, I would wish the Courtier favored in this other respect, and endowed by nature not only with talent and with beauty of countenance and person, but with that certain grace which we call an `air,' which shall make him at first sight pleasing and lovable to all who see him; and let this be an adornment informing and attending all his actions, giving the promise outwardly that such a one is worthy of the company and the favor of every great lord." .. .

"But to come to some particulars: I hold that the principal and true profession of the Courtier must be that of arms ... which I wish him to exercise with vigor; and let him be known among the others as bold, energetic, and faithful to whomever he serves. . . . The more our Courtier excels in this art, the more will he merit praise; although I do not deem it necessary that he have the perfect knowledge of things and other qualities that befit a commander, for since this would launch us on too great a sea, we shall be satisfied, as we have said, if he have complete loyalty and an undaunted spirit, and be always seen to have them...

Therefore, let the man we are seeking be exceedingly fierce, harsh, and always among the first, wherever the enemy is; and in every other place, humane, modest, reserved, avoiding ostentation above all things as well as that impudent praise of himself by which a man always arouses hatred and disgust in all who hear him."

"I would have him more than passably learned in letters, at least in those studies which we call the humanities. Let him be conversant not only with the Latin language, but with Greek as well, because of the abundance and variety of things that are so divinely written therein. Let him be versed in the poets, as well as in the orators and historians, and let him be practiced also in writing verse and prose, especially in our own vernacular; for, besides the personal satisfaction he will take in this, in this way he will never want for pleasant entertainment with the ladies, who are usually fond of such things.... These studies, moreover, will make him fluent, and (as Aristippus said to the tyrant) bold and self-confident in speaking with everyone. However, I would have our Courtier keep one precept firmly in mind, namely, in this as in everything else, to be cautious and reserved rather than forward, and take care not to get the mistaken notion that he knows something he does not know."

I think that in her ways, manners, words, gestures, and bearing, a woman ought to be very unlike a man; for just as he must show a certain solid and sturdy manliness, so it is seemly for a woman to have a soft and delicate tenderness, with an air of womanly sweetness in her every movement, which, in her going and staying, and in whatever she says, shall always make her appear the woman without any resemblance to a man.

"Now, if this precept be added to the rules which these gentlemen have taught the Courtier, then I think she ought to be able to follow many such and adorn herself with the best accomplishments, as signor Gasparo says. For I hold that many virtues of the mind are as necessary to a woman as to a man; also, gentle birth; to avoid affectation, to be naturally graceful in all her actions, to be mannerly, clever, prudent, not arrogant, not envious, not slanderous, not vain, not contentious, not inept, to know how to gain and hold the favor of her mistress and of all others, to perform well and gracefully the exercises that are suitable for women. And I do think that beauty is more necessary to her than to the Courtier, for truly that woman lacks much who lacks beauty. Also she must be more circumspect, and more careful not to give occasion for evil being said of her, and conduct herself so that she may not only escape being sullied by guilt but even by the suspicion of it, for a woman has not so many ways of defending herself against false calumnies as a man has."

PETER PAUL VERGERIO AND THE INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE

Closely associated with the rise of literary humanism was a new emphasis on the more broadly defined "liberal arts." This emphasis was manifested in a new concern with education; a change in educational curriculum constituted an institutional development that was enduring and that had wide-ranging effects. The first to express this emphasis systematically in an educational program was Peter Paul Vergerio (1370-1444). He taught in several Italian universities, and in his main treatise, On the Liberal Arts, he rejected much of the content and methods of medieval education. Vergerio presents his views on the growing importance of the liberal arts in the following selection from a letter written to Ubertinus of Carrara.

Consider what is particularly humanistic rather than scholastic or medieval about this view; how Vergerio justifies his choice of the three subjects in this proposed curriculum; what Petrarch might think of this letter.

Peter Paul Vergerio, On the Liberal Arts

Your grandfather, Francesco I, a man distinguished for his capacity in affairs and for his sound judgment, was in the habit of saying that a parent owes three duties to his children. The first of these is to bestow upon them names of which they need not feel ashamed. For not seldom, out of caprice, or even indifference, or perhaps from a wish to perpetuate a family name, a father in naming his child inflicts upon him a misfortune which clings to him for life. The second obligation is this: to provide that his child be brought up in a city of distinction, for this not only concerns his future self-respect, but is closely connected with the third and most important care which is due from father to son. This is the duty of seeing that he be trained in sound learning. For no wealth, no possible security against the future, can be compared with the gift of an education in grave and liberal studies. By them a man may win distinction for the most modest name, and bring honor to the city of his birth however obscure it may be. But we must remember that whilst a man may escape from the burden of an unlucky name, or from the contempt attaching to a city of no repute, by changing the one or quitting the other, he can never remedy the neglect of early education. The foundation, therefore, of this last must be laid in the first years of life, the disposition molded whilst it is susceptible and the mind trained whilst it is retentive.